Method for tracking the status of a workflow using weblogs

ABSTRACT

Described is a method for tracking the status of a workflow. Each step of the workflow is performed by one or more members of the workflow and each member has at least one workflow role. A weblog is generated to track an instance of the workflow and members are assigned to the weblog. An entry is posted in the weblog to indicate the performance of a workflow action, such as the completion of a workflow step or the execution of a workflow exception. The entry can be made directly into the weblog or may be in response to an entry made in a personal weblog. A workflow feed can be provided to an aggregator to permit monitoring of the workflow along with other workflows and weblog entries. Additionally, the viewing of weblog entries can be restricted to a predetermined group of users.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to a method for monitoring a workflow.In particular, the invention relates to the use of weblogs for trackingworkflow status and providing a venue for communication andcollaboration among co-workers.

Business processes and workflows are typically managed using multipleforms of communications and organization. For example, e-mail iscommonly used to inform individuals associated with a business workflowof the occurrence of important events and required actions. In otherinstances the communications are verbal. Project management software isused to specify the various steps, or tasks, to be performed and totrack the completion of these steps. No common form of workflowmanagement exists that centralizes, stores and tracks all communicationsfor practical oversight of the workflow.

When a problem arises with a workflow, a typical response includescontacting individuals responsible for different tasks to determinedetails of the problem and to determine what actions are being taken tocorrect the problem. Individuals responsible for the workflow may reviewnumerous written communications, such as status reports and e-mails, tofind relevant information. In some instances the audit process may provefruitless as there may not be any recorded information that relates tothe problem. In other instances it can be difficult to determine whoperformed a step and when the step was performed.

What is needed is a method for managing workflows that yields improvedtracking. The method should enable auditing and accountability. Inaddition, the method should automatically provide for the recording ofthe completion of workflow steps and allow for the inclusion ofexceptions to the workflow. The present invention satisfies these needsand provides additional advantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the invention features a method for tracking the statusof a workflow. A weblog is generated to track an instance of theworkflow. The workflow has a plurality of workflow steps each performedby at least one member. Each of the members has at least one workflowrole. At least one member is assigned to the weblog. An entry is postedin the weblog to indicate that a workflow action has occurred.

In another aspect, the invention features a computing system fortracking the status of a workflow. The computing system includes adisplay screen, an input device and a server in communication with thedisplay screen and the input device. The input device can receive aclient request to generate a weblog for tracking an instance of theworkflow, indicate an assignment of a member to the weblog and post anentry in the weblog to indicate that a workflow action has occurred. Theserver executes a server application to generate the weblog, to assignthe member to the weblog and to post an entry in the weblog indicatingthat a workflow action has occurred.

In still another aspect, the invention features a computer programproduct for use with a computer system. The computer program productcomprises a computer useable medium having embodied therein programcode. The program code includes program code for generating a weblog totrack an instance of a workflow, program code for assigning a member tothe weblog, and program code for posting an entry in the weblog toindicate that a workflow action has occurred.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and further advantages of this invention may be betterunderstood by referring to the following description in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings, in which like numerals indicate likestructural elements and features in the various figures. The drawingsare not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed uponillustrating the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computing system fortracking the status of a workflow according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a system for tracking thestatus of multiple workflows according to the invention.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exemplary personal weblog for monitoringworkflow status and posting weblog entries.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an exemplary aggregator view for monitoringmultiple weblog feeds, including workflow processes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In brief overview the invention relates to a method for tracking thestatus of a workflow. As used herein, workflow means a definedcollection of steps or a process that allows a user to manage andmonitor activities, tasks and events related to a project or a specificgoal. Workflows are intended to include business processes, activities,collections of tasks, to do lists and the like. The method includescreating a workflow weblog, or “blogflow”, to track an instance of aworkflow. All members assigned to the weblog have roles, orresponsibilities, defined by one or more steps in the workflow. Themembers contribute together in creating posts to the weblog by theirnormal participation in the workflow process. A role can be reassignedto a different member if the original member becomes unavailable toperform the related task. More than one role can be assigned to amember, and more than one member can be assigned to any role.

As workflow actions occur, the weblog system automatically posts entriesin the weblog. In effect, the workflow weblog acts as a loggingmechanism for the workflow where messages and updates are automaticallygenerated and posted. Also, members assigned to roles can manually addpostings to the weblog. Each member can maintain a personal weblog(i.e., member weblog) which can be configured to aggregate manual andautomatic postings from multiple workflow instances and types.Consequently, members can collect and monitor their involvement within aprocess. The invention also contemplates the entry of exception postingsto the weblog. Exception postings relate to matters that may influencethe execution of a workflow but are not defined in the workflow steps.Exception postings can take the form of a trouble ticket, requiringaffirmative action before the ticket is “closed.” Advantageously,entries in the weblog can be fed to an aggregator along with entriesfrom other weblogs, allowing oversight of multiple workflows andmultiple instances of a workflow.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary computing system 10 in which the method of theinvention may be implemented. The computing system 10 includes a clientdevice 14 such as a personal computer, Windows-based terminal, NetworkComputer, wireless device, workstation, mini-computer, cell phone,personal digital assistant (PDA) or other computing device that hashardware 18 such as a display screen, one or more input devices (e.g.,keypad, stylus, keyboard, mouse, touch-pad, and trackball), a processorfor executing application programs 22, and sufficient persistent storagefor storing such application programs 22 and related information. Onetype of application program 22 that can be stored is a web browser, suchas Internet Explorer™ and Netscape Navigator™, adapted for viewing andinteracting with web pages stored on a server 26.

The web browser 22 executes within an operating system 30. Examples ofoperating systems supported by the client device 14 include Windows 3.x,Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows CE, Macintosh,Java, LINUX, and UNIX. The client device 14 also includes a networkinterface 34 for communicating over a network 38. The network 38 can bea local-area network (LAN), a metro-area network (MAN), or wide-areanetwork (WAN), such as the Internet or World Wide Web. Users of theclient device 14 can connect to the network 38 through one of a varietyof connections, such as standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN links(e.g., T1, T3), broadband connections (Frame Relay, ATM), and wirelessconnections (e.g., 802.11(a), 802.11(b), 802.11(g)). The web browser 22communicates with the server 26 located on the network 38 through thenetwork interface 34, to download or extract content from web pagesstored on the server 26 and to post entries into web pages stored on theserver 26.

Referring to the functional block diagram shown in FIG. 2, an embodimentof a system 42 for tracking the status of a workflow according to theinvention includes a user 46 interacting with two workflow instances 50′and 50″ (generally 50). The two workflow instances 50 can be based onthe same workflow template. Alternatively, each workflow instance 50 cancorrespond to a different workflow template. In another option, at leastone of the workflow steps is defined upon instantiation of a respectiveworkflow weblog 54′ or 54″ (generally 54). The workflow steps can beredefined as the particular workflow instance 50 is performed. Inaddition, one or both of the workflow instances 50 can be part of agreater workflow or can be the parent of one or more subsidiaryworkflows.

Each workflow weblog 54 can include a blogroll, i.e., a collection oflinks, or references, that point to other workflow weblogs or othersyndicated feeds, such as personal weblogs, company news feeds and thelike. The blogroll can include manual entries made by the user 46 andautomatic entries made during execution of the respective workflow 50.The entries can link to parent workflows or subsidiary workflows. Thestate of the linked workflow instance 50 can be presented in theblogroll and is updated through the use of trackbacks. Trackbacks arebased on a short message reply, or ping, received from the linkedworkflow to update the state information.

Each workflow instance 50 communicates with the respective weblog 54through an interpreter 58. The weblogs 54 can be included within otherweblogs or refer to other weblogs. Although only two workflow instances50, two weblogs 54 and two interpreters 58 are shown, the inventioncontemplates any number of these components. As illustrated, the user 46can post directly to a personal weblog 62 (i.e., member weblog). Eachworkflow weblog 54 is configured for communication with the personalweblog 62 and an aggregator 66. The personal weblog 62 can alsocommunicate with the aggregator 66.

When the user 46 interacts with one of the workflows instances 50, alogging entry is generated. The logging entry is processed by theinterpreter 58 and is forwarded for inclusion in the correspondingworkflow weblog 54. Processing by the interpreter 58 includestranslating raw events triggered in the workflow instance 50 into an XMLweblog entry format or other standard weblog entry format that is humanreadable. The entry is then copied to or referenced in the user'spersonal weblog 62. Entries in the personal weblog 62 generated bydifferent workflow weblogs 50 can be distinguished by color or contentfor easy recognition. Similarly, manually generated postings andautomatically generated messages can be displayed in different colors orcontain signifying marks such as graphical icons. Moreover, entries madeaccording to a specific role can share the same color so the user 46 caneasily recognize the contributor.

In response to a workflow generated entry, the user 46 can manually postan entry (e.g., comment) in the workflow weblog 54. Alternatively, theuser 46 can comment by posting an entry in their personal weblog 62.Depending on the functionality implemented in the personal weblog 62, anentry is not necessarily linked to or copied to the correspondingworkflow weblog 54. Some companies and organizations may wish to limitthe posting of entries to automatic posting. Furthermore, companies andorganizations may prohibit members from maintaining personal weblogs 62.

Individuals outside the scope of the workflow instance 50 may be able tomanually post entries in the workflow weblog 54 if they have accessrights. For example, a director or manager may not fulfill a role in theworkflow instance 50 but may still be able to post if the director ormanager supervises any of the members in the workflow instance 50. Inaddition, anyone aggregating the workflow weblog 54 has rights and,therefore, can manually post a comment.

Each of the weblogs 54, 62 can be configured to produce RSS (Rich SiteSummary or RDF Site Summary) feeds. The RSS feeds are subscribed to bythe aggregator 66. Thus the aggregator 66 can receive notifications andupdates from a number of workflow instances 50. The aggregator 66organizes the information provided in the RSS feeds according toworkflow types, roles, workflow members, or other parameter included inthe RSS feeds. In addition, the aggregator 66 polls the RSS feeds todetermine newly added items for presentation to an aggregator user. Inone example, an aggregator 66 is used to copy the first few text linesof an entry. In another example, the aggregator 66 acts as a miniatureweb-browser and copying does not occur. Instead, the entries are vieweddirectly from downloaded web pages.

The use of a workflow weblog 54 to track the status of an instance of aworkflow has many advantages. A major benefit is the ability forcollaboration by participants in a business process. Auditing is moreeasily accomplished in comparison to typical record searching andemployee discussions for determining status. Accountability is improvedas employees assigned to specific roles must “check off” completion ofworkflow steps. Entries can thus be traced to the responsible members.For roles that change over time, entries are created as shifts in usersoccur. This enhances auditing and accounting capabilities. In addition,the workflow weblog 54 organizes information according to when the stepto be completed occurs in the overall workflow so an auditor knows whereto look for relevant entries. Importantly, the volume of e-mail betweenindividuals that relates to the workflow is reduced and relevantworkflow information is centralized.

There is no special expertise required to generate the weblog and tomake entries as software for these functions is readily available. Thusthe need for special skills and training to use a collaborative tool iseliminated. There are no restrictions to the visual format of entriesposted to the weblog 54. The weblog 54 can be accessed using any systemor device that has a web browser capability. For example, an employeeaway from the office can view entries on various portable devices (e.g.,personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cell phones). In one embodiment,access to the weblog 54 is limited to users defined in the workflow 50,such as users having specific roles and specified management personnel.Users can post entries to the weblog 54 using PDAs, cell phones, webpages, e-mail programs, instant messaging programs, and customapplications. Entries that can be posted include text, links, and othercontent. A wide range of options are available for making entries,including HTML forms, e-mail, chat programs, and custom interfaces.Weblog software processes the entries for posting and RSS aggregation,thus the user 14 is relieved of many of the tasks and effort previouslyrequired for publication.

The following description is an illustrative example for tracking thestatus of a workflow is based on an automobile dealership. Thedealership receives new cars from an affiliated supplier. The dealershipmaintains a workflow detailing steps to be performed for each cardelivered by the supplier. Once the dealership receives confirmation ofa new delivery, the general manager of the dealership initiates theworkflow to process the delivery. The workflow includes various steps oractions to be performed such as financing approval, inventory tracking,receiving the car, selling the car, servicing the car, and a means tohandle exceptions or actions not described within the workflow.

Various employees at the dealership are assigned as members withspecific roles in the workflow. For example, when the general managerlaunches the workflow, the lot manager is notified of the delivery, forexample, on a PDA. The lot manager matches the vehicle identificationnumber and assigns a stock number to the new car using the PDA. Theservice manager is alerted when the lot manager has completed his tasks.The general manager can examine the workflow at any time to determineits status. The dealership's supplier may have access to the workflowweblog and related workflow weblogs through an RSS aggregator in orderto monitor matters for which the supplier may be responsible.

As previously described, exceptions can arise that are not routinelyhandled by the workflow. In the automobile dealership example, anexception is a damage report indicating that damage has been detected ona received car. Generating a damage report includes initiating anexception workflow weblog that is referenced by or linked to the mainweblog for the process. The main weblog may require a trackback message,or ping, before continuing with subsequent steps in the workflow. Thetrackback allows later entries responsive to the damage report to go tothe proper place in the weblog. Without the trackback feature, anauditor may have to view numerous entries made after the damage reportto determine whether the damage report was completed. Once the exceptionworkflow weblog is completed, the main weblog resumes its steps. Forexample, once the damage report is completed, the service manager isalerted and allowed to proceed with a pre-delivery inspection of thecar.

FIG. 3 depicts a personal weblog 70 belonging to a member of multipleworkflows. The weblog 70 includes a header 74 that identifies the member(Lucy James), the member's role (service manager) and the organization(Denby Auto). The header 74 also provides the member the ability tocreate a manual post, to display archived entries and to displayaggregator feeds. The left side of the weblog 70 displays automaticentries 78′ and manual entries 78″ (generally 78) to the weblog 70 inchronological order with the most recent entry being closest to the topof the weblog 70. To see additional entries 78, the member selects“more” 82 at the bottom left portion of the weblog 70.

Each entry 78 shows the posting time, the source or author, and thenumber of posted comments relating to the entry 78. Workflow entries 78show the workflow step, time of completion and the workflow name.Because the member is a service manager at an automobile dealership,automatic entries 78′ in the weblog 70 typically relate to her tasks atthe dealership, such as inventory updates and pre-delivery inspections(PDIs). Entries 78″ manually posted by the member can also relate alsorelate to dealership matters, or may be personal in nature and notavailable for viewing by others in other weblogs.

At the top right portion of the weblog 70 below the header 74 is a setof selection buttons 86 that allow the member to add a new businessprocess (or workflow), edit an existing business process or delete anexisting business process. All members of the process will be able tosee these new postings, and edits. The member can also create anexception posting, such as a trouble ticket, for matters that are notdefined in a business process. Pending business processes 90 aredisplayed according to groups. There are 21 inventory trackingprocesses, four processes relating to receipt of new cars and sevenprocesses relating to servicing cars. As illustrated, the view of thepending business processes 90 includes an expanded view of the carservicing processes. Each car servicing process shows the start date,the person that initiated the process, a brief description and thecurrent status of the process. The word “owner” indicates that themember is the person that initiated the car servicing process. Twobusiness processes 94 are displayed with an additional symbol toindicate that there is at least one related comment entry. At the bottomright portion of the weblog 70 are expanded views 98 and 102 of twobusiness process groups. These expanded views 98, 102 are established bythe member for automatic display regardless of content. Typically theautomatic expanded views 98, 102 relate to the more critical businessprocesses that are of special interest to the member.

FIG. 4 depicts an aggregator view 106 of a member (Lew Gould) who isgeneral manager of the automobile dealership. The general manager maynot be a direct member of many, or perhaps even all, of the workflowsidentified in the aggregator view 106, however, the general managerstill has access based on assigned privileges. The aggregator view 106includes a header 110 showing that the member has elected to display theaggregator view 106. The left side of the aggregator view 106 includesan expanded view 114 of business processes being monitored by thegeneral manager, with the number in parentheses indicating the number ofunread entries for the respective process group. The view 118 belowlists other channel groups (i.e., groupings of feeds) of interest to thegeneral manager, including dealership feeds, personal (office) weblogfeeds, and personal interest feeds derived from sources unrelated to thedealership. Optionally, the general manager can select (i.e., click on)a channel group to obtain all the entries even though there may besubcategories within the channel group. For example, if the generalmanager clicks on the bold text “Business Processes”, all 41 businessprocesses are displayed.

In the right portion of the aggregator view 106 is an expanded view 122of workflows related to receiving a car. The two unread entries arereferenced by bold text. Just below is an expanded view 126 of thehighlighted entry above. The expanded view 126 does not display all theinformation for the highlighted process but instead shows a summary ofthe process that includes the most recent entries.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference tospecific embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in theart that various changes in form and detail may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for tracking the status of a workflow,the method comprising: instantiating an instance of a workflow on acomputing device by a workflow user, the workflow user being assigned toa role in the workflow, the workflow having a plurality of workflowsteps and based on a selected workflow template; automaticallygenerating a weblog in response to instantiating the instance of theworkflow on the computing device to tracking the instance of theworkflow, the weblog accessible to weblog members, wherein the weblogmembers include members who are workflow users and members who do nothave a role in the instance of the workflow, first weblog members withpermission to view workflow status and weblog comments, and secondweblog members with permission to view workflow status and view and postweblog comments, wherein the instance of the workflow includes one ormore of a parent to a subsidiary workflow and a child of the parentworkflow; configuring at the computing device the weblog for a weblogmember who does not have a role in the instance of the workflow to havepermission to manually post an entry in the weblog, the weblogdisplaying a combination of manual and automatic entries, the automaticentries being computer-generated and directly posted in response tobeing computer-generated during an execution of the instance of theworkflow, the automatic entries relating to tasks of the workflow user,the manual entries posted by one or more of the weblog members who doesnot have a role in the instance of the workflow, a first weblog memberof the first weblog members, a second weblog member of the second weblogmembers, the manual entries relating to the workflow or relating tonon-workflow matters, the method further comprising: linking one or moreof the manual and automatic entries to the one or more of the parent tothe subsidiary workflow and the child of the parent workflow; andgenerating a trackback that updates a state of the instance of theworkflow in response to linking the one or more of the manual andautomatic entries to the one or more of the parent to the subsidiaryworkflow and the child of the parent workflow; causing communicationbetween the workflow and the weblog to post an entry of the combinationof manual and automatic entries in the weblog indicating that a workflowaction has occurred, the entry being physically viewable on a displaydevice by weblog members; generating a logging entry at the computingdevice in response to posting the entry of the combination of manual andautomatic entries in the weblog; processing, by an interpreter, thelogging entry; forwarding the logging entry to the weblog, based on theprocessing; and presenting weblog entries related to the workflow user'stasks and further related to other workflow instances to an aggregatorin communication with the display device, which displays an output ofthe aggregator to a member of the weblog members, the aggregatorarranging the presented weblog entries corresponding to the instance ofthe workflow at the display device with other workflow instances beingmonitored by the aggregator as feeds of interest, the output includingthe weblog entries and an expanded view of at least one of the instanceof the workflow and the other workflow instances, the weblog entriesprovided from the combination of manual and automatic entries, theaggregator further polling the feeds of interest to determine newlyadded items for presentation to the aggregator user.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the workflow action comprises the completion of aworkflow step.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the workflow actioncomprises the execution of a workflow exception.
 4. The method of claim1 further comprising posting an entry in a personal weblog to indicatethat the workflow action has occurred.
 5. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising providing a feed to an aggregator, the aggregator receivingentries from the weblog and at least one other instance of a weblog. 6.The method of claim 5 wherein providing a feed comprises providing RichSite Summary or RDF Summary (RSS) feed from a plurality of weblogs for asyndication.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the posting of an entry inthe workflow weblog is made in response to a posting of an entry in apersonal weblog.
 8. A computing system for tracking the status of aworkflow, the computing system comprising: a display screen; an inputdevice to perform: receiving a client request to instantiate an instanceof a workflow by a workflow user, the workflow user being assigned to arole in the workflow, the workflow having a plurality of workflow steps;receiving a client request to generate a weblog for tracking theinstance of the workflow, and a server in communication with the displayscreen and the input device, the server executing a server applicationto automatically generate the weblog in response to instantiating theinstance of the workflow, the weblog accessible to weblog members,wherein the weblog members include members who are workflow users andmembers who do not have a role in the instance of the workflow, a weblogmember who does not have a role in the instance of the workflow havingpermission to post an entry in the weblog, first weblog members withpermission to view workflow status and weblog comments, and secondweblog members with permission to view workflow status and view and postweblog comments, wherein the instance of the workflow includes one ormore of a parent to a subsidiary workflow and a child of the parentworkflow, the server employing an application to cause communicationbetween the workflow and the weblog to automatically post an entry inthe weblog to indicate that a workflow action has occurred, the entrybeing physically viewable on a display device by the weblog members, theweblog displaying a combination of manual and automatic entries, theautomatic entries being computer-generated and directly posted inresponse to being computer-generated during an execution of the instanceof the workflow, the automatic entries relating to tasks of the workflowuser, the manual entries posted by one or more of the weblog members whodoes not have a role in the instance of the workflow, a first weblogmember of the first weblog members, a second weblog member of the secondweblog members, the manual entries relating to the workflow or relatingto non-workflow matters, the server further linking one or more of themanual and automatic entries to the one or more of the parent to thesubsidiary workflow and the child of the parent workflow, the serverfurther generating a trackback that updates a state of the instance ofthe workflow in response to linking the one or more of the manual andautomatic entries to the one or more of the parent to the subsidiaryworkflow and the child of the parent workflow, the server furthercausing communication between the workflow and the weblog to post anentry of the combination of manual and automatic entries in the weblogindicating that a workflow action has occurred, the entry beingphysically viewable on a display device by weblog members, the serverfurther generating a logging entry at the computing device in responseto posting the entry of the combination of manual and automatic entriesin the weblog, the server include an interpreter that processes thelogging entry, the server forwarding the logging entry to the weblogbased on the processing, the server including an aggregator incommunication with the display screen, and presenting weblog entriesrelated to the workflow user's tasks and further related to otherworkflow instances to the aggregator, the display screen displaying anoutput of the aggregator to a member of the weblog members, theaggregator arranging the presented weblog entries corresponding to theinstance of the workflow at the display device with other workflowinstances being monitored by the aggregator as feeds of interest , theoutput including the weblog entries and an expanded view of at least oneof the instance of the workflow and the other workflow instances, theweblog entries provided from the combination of manual and automaticentries, the aggregator further polling the feeds of interest todetermine newly added items for presentation to the aggregator user. 9.The computing system of claim 8 further comprising a remote server incommunication with the server, the additional server storing a personalweblog and executing a server application to modify the personal weblog.10. The computing system of claim 8 wherein the server generates a firstinstance of a weblog and further comprising a remote server incommunication with the server, the remote server executing an aggregatorapplication to receive at least one entry from the first instance of aweblog and a second instance of a weblog.
 11. A computer program productfor use with a computer system, the computer program product comprisinga non-transitory computer readable medium having embodied therein acomputer program for storing data comprising: program code forinstantiating an instance of a workflow by a workflow user, the workflowuser being assigned to a role in the workflow, the workflow having aplurality of workflow steps; program code for automatically generating aweblog in response to instantiating the instance of the workflow totrack the instance of the workflow, the weblog accessible to weblogmembers, wherein the weblog members include members who are workflowusers and members who do not have a role in the instance of theworkflow, first weblog members with permission to view workflow statusweblog comments, and second weblog members with permission to viewworkflow status and view and post weblog comments, wherein the instanceof the workflow includes one or more of a parent to a subsidiaryworkflow and a child of the parent workflow; program code forconfiguring the weblog for a weblog member who does not have a role inthe instance of the workflow to have permission to manually post anentry to the weblog, the weblog displaying a combination of manual andautomatic entries, the automatic entries being computer-generated anddirectly posted in response to being computer-generated during anexecution of the instance of the workflow, the automatic entriesrelating to tasks of the workflow user, the manual entries posted by oneor more of the weblog members who does not have a role in the instanceof the workflow, a first weblog member of the first weblog members, asecond weblog member of the second weblog members, the manual entriesrelating to the workflow or relating to non-workflow matters, the methodfurther comprising: linking one or more of the manual and automaticentries to the one or more of the parent to the subsidiary workflow andthe child of the parent workflow; and generating a trackback thatupdates a state of the instance of the workflow in response to linkingthe one or more of the manual and automatic entries to the one or moreof the parent to the subsidiary workflow and the child of the parentworkflow; and program code for causing communication between theworkflow and the weblog to post an entry of the combination of manualand automatic entries in the weblog indicating that a workflow actionhas occurred, the entry being physically viewable on a display device bythe weblog members, generating a logging entry at the computing devicein response to posting the entry of the combination of manual andautomatic entries in the weblog; processing, by an interpreter, thelogging entry; forwarding the logging entry to the weblog, based on theprocessing; and presenting weblog entries related to the workflow user'stasks and further related to other workflow instances to an aggregatorin communication with the display device, which displays an output ofthe aggregator to a member of the weblog members, the aggregatorarranging the presented weblog entries corresponding to the instance ofthe workflow at the display device with other workflow instances beingmonitored by the aggregator as feeds of interest, the output includingthe weblog entries and an expanded view of at least one of the instanceof the workflow and the other workflow instances, the weblog entriesprovided from the combination of manual and automatic entries, theaggregator further polling the feeds of interest to determine newlyadded items for presentation to the aggregator user.
 12. The computerprogram product of claim 11 further comprising program code for postingan entry in a personal weblog to indicate that the workflow action hasoccurred.
 13. The computer program product of claim 11 furthercomprising program code for providing a feed to an aggregator.
 14. Thecomputer program product of claim 11 wherein the program code forposting an entry in the weblog is responsive to a posting of an entry ina personal weblog.